Travelzest shrinks its naturist units

Friday 4 January 2013 11:46 BST

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Pacho & Maria..Hotel Vera Playa Club. Naturists on holiday at the Hotel Vera Playa Club, Almeria, Spain.
Last week 70-year-old travel entrepreneur Peter Englert sold his 'naturist' holiday company Peng Travel for £1.8million. The Daily Mail's Tanya Gold paid a visit to meet the British adventurers who have made Mr Englert rich. Tanya says: 'I am greeted by Joaquin, the Vera Playa's representative. He hands me a copy of the hotel's Conditions Of Living Together, designed to ensure the guests don't mate or fight-'we recommend to use the towels when sitting on the chair's'. From 8pm to 8am nudity is forbidden. Tanya met Harold, 55, and Doreen, 57, from Lichfield in Staffordshire. 'It's addictive,' says Doreen. 'Once you come on one of these holidays you will never want to go on another.' Harold explains the ideology of nudity. 'There is no class system here because everyone is naked,' he says. 'You can have as much money as you like and no one will know. Everyone is equal here. It's normal'.
Photographer:
Pic: GRANT TRIPLOW GRANT TRIPLOW

Naked holidays clearly aren’t in vogue: more than a year after Travelzest put the UK’s biggest naturist holiday operator up for sale, it’s still failed to find a buyer.

The travel group first announced it was “exploring options” for Peng Travel — founded by naturist Peter Englert in 1971 — in December 2011. Today it told investors that it has “made the decision to sell or wind down all the remaining UK operations”, and it expects this process to be completed “by the end of the first fiscal quarter of this year”.

Instead, it is focusing on two British travel websites — holiday.co.uk and flights.co.uk — and two Canadian travel businesses (one specialising in cruises) which also happen to be for sale: Travelzest set up an independent board in May to seek a potential buyer, and it supported a management buy-out of the Canadian business. “Although there is no certainty there will be a sale that is acceptable to the independent board, negotiations remain on-going,” chairman Nigel Jenkins said today.

The sale of the Canadian business would allow Travelzest to repay bank debt and return funds to investors. “For prudence, the board is also reviewing alternative financing options in the event the sale does not proceed,” Travelzest admitted.

Revenues fell 5% to £24.1 million in the year to November, and losses narrowed from £2.9 million a year ago to £1.6 million.